Eat your heart out, Jackson
Graduate physics courses in classical electrodynamics are generally regarded as an excruciating experience, akin to a root canal or a typical episode of Scrubs. This dubious
distinction probably has a lot to do with the canonical text in the subject, Classical Electrodynamics by John David Jackson - a terse, horrible book with problems no on can solve ever. Even the baby Jesus.
Well, I'm taking these courses in a few weeks, and my professor decided he didn't want to eat that particular bag of dicks, so he's using this text instead. My feelings were mixed. There was of course the elation of knowing that I won't spend hours crying until the mascara runs down my face because I can't solve some horrible boundary value problem from that fuckface Jackson. But at the same time, I feel I'm missing out on a rite of passage, and will forever remain not a girl, but not yet a woman.
But yeah, this new book is something else. It's common for authors to inject a bit of whimsy into problems involving special relativity. Like, some soprano (e.g., La Boheme's Mimi) travels at half the speed of light and intones A5 in her rest frame. What note do you hear because of the doppler shift? That sort of shit. This author uses Star Trek:
Here it is. You knew it was coming: Star Trek MCLXI-The Seventeenth Generation! Data and the Ferengi Emperor are locked in a deadly battle of Wheel of Fortune, starring Vanna White, who has been traveling around at nearly the speed of light for centuries trying to stay young. Vanna is in orbit 100 light-seconds from earth with Data and the Ferengi nearby, while the host, Darth Vader, on loan from another studio, is on Earth. When Vanna gives the contestants the last question, the Ferengi attempts to cheat by speeding toward the earth at 0.99c while he is thinking, so that when he radios his answer to Earth it will arrive first. However, he forgets that when traveling at near the speed of light, his thinking (like all other processes on his ship) slows down due to time dilation. Data takes 10 s and the Ferengi 12 s to answer the question, each acording to his own clock, so it takes, for example, 110 s for Data's answer to reach earth.
(a) Does cheating pay? Whose answer arrives first?
(b) What does MCLXI mean?
Comments:
(a) The Ferengi are ruled by a Grand Nagus, not an emperor. DUH. Everyone knows this.
(b) There are no "questions" on Wheel of Fortune. Just...uh...letters, making it accessible to the kind of hydrocephalic trailer trash that watches it and Price is Right.
(c) Why are the Ferengi ("space Jews") always maligned as greedy, conniving ne'er-do-wells? THAT'S RACIST.
distinction probably has a lot to do with the canonical text in the subject, Classical Electrodynamics by John David Jackson - a terse, horrible book with problems no on can solve ever. Even the baby Jesus.
Well, I'm taking these courses in a few weeks, and my professor decided he didn't want to eat that particular bag of dicks, so he's using this text instead. My feelings were mixed. There was of course the elation of knowing that I won't spend hours crying until the mascara runs down my face because I can't solve some horrible boundary value problem from that fuckface Jackson. But at the same time, I feel I'm missing out on a rite of passage, and will forever remain not a girl, but not yet a woman.
But yeah, this new book is something else. It's common for authors to inject a bit of whimsy into problems involving special relativity. Like, some soprano (e.g., La Boheme's Mimi) travels at half the speed of light and intones A5 in her rest frame. What note do you hear because of the doppler shift? That sort of shit. This author uses Star Trek:
Here it is. You knew it was coming: Star Trek MCLXI-The Seventeenth Generation! Data and the Ferengi Emperor are locked in a deadly battle of Wheel of Fortune, starring Vanna White, who has been traveling around at nearly the speed of light for centuries trying to stay young. Vanna is in orbit 100 light-seconds from earth with Data and the Ferengi nearby, while the host, Darth Vader, on loan from another studio, is on Earth. When Vanna gives the contestants the last question, the Ferengi attempts to cheat by speeding toward the earth at 0.99c while he is thinking, so that when he radios his answer to Earth it will arrive first. However, he forgets that when traveling at near the speed of light, his thinking (like all other processes on his ship) slows down due to time dilation. Data takes 10 s and the Ferengi 12 s to answer the question, each acording to his own clock, so it takes, for example, 110 s for Data's answer to reach earth.
(a) Does cheating pay? Whose answer arrives first?
(b) What does MCLXI mean?
Comments:
(a) The Ferengi are ruled by a Grand Nagus, not an emperor. DUH. Everyone knows this.
(b) There are no "questions" on Wheel of Fortune. Just...uh...letters, making it accessible to the kind of hydrocephalic trailer trash that watches it and Price is Right.
(c) Why are the Ferengi ("space Jews") always maligned as greedy, conniving ne'er-do-wells? THAT'S RACIST.